Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal: spirited away – but what about those left behind?

Hundreds of pensioners have escaped Zimbabwe thanks to the British Government.
Many who remain there depend on ZANE for survival, says Elizabeth Grice

'Fear was everywhere': like thousands of other pensioners in Zimbabwe, Dawn Twiss lost all her savings and saw medical services collapse

1:28PM GMT 09 Dec 2010

They came quietly in groups of eight or 10, proud but desperate British men and women who had been made destitute by the Mugabe regime. As little as possible was said about their escape from Zimbabwe to avoid jeopardising their rescue. Though they mingled with ordinary passengers in the chaos at Harare airport, there was an unusual tension in the air as they waited for flights. Some were numb with shock, unable to believe that salvation was at hand. Others wept openly to be leaving a country they loved. From February 2009 until October this year, this covert operation – organised by the Government and British charities – was repeated again and again until the last one of 346 British citizens eligible to be repatriated was safe.

“The anxiety, right to the last minute, was intense,” says Dawn Twiss, 71, who was one of the first to arrive. “For British pensioners like me, this was the answer to every prayer they had been saying for so long; a way out of misery and despair. Though it was a big step into the unknown, and I knew there would be no way back, I saw this as the chance of a lifetime. Down to the final drive to the airport – when we were caught in a police speed trap – I was fearful that something would go wrong.”

Teachers, soldiers and former civil servants are among those who have been resettled with clandestine efficiency across Britain during a remarkable 18 months of humanitarian effort. They were a particularly vulnerable group and their situation was worsening by the day. All their savings had been swept away in Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. Some were sick. Most had become dependent on hand-outs.

The former IT head of a big sugar company, Mrs Twiss, whose parents were British, found herself almost destitute after 40 happy years in Zimbabwe. “I had worked and saved because I knew, as a widow, I must be independent,” she says. “I had my own house in the rural area of Chiredzi. Everything was secure and beautiful. It was the story of so many people who had worked hard and thought they were all right. Then it all fell apart. And there was nothing we could have done to avert disaster.”

Rampant inflation wiped out assets and savings. Mrs Twiss sold her house and moved into sheltered accommodation, but eventually could not afford the rent. “They took 10 noughts off the currency. Boom. Just like that. It was the end of everybody’s savings. It cost a million dollars for a loaf of bread; two million for a cabbage. Fear was the worst thing.

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“The elderly were utterly baffled to be told their money had gone. The figures meant nothing. People queued for three or four days to take money out of the bank. I saw a man in a supermarket one day with a tin of dog food and a packet of sausages in his basket. The cashier told him he didn’t have enough money for both. He took the dog food. It was so sad. People who had nothing were selling their pets, their only companions.

“Medical services were another horror. Dispensaries closed because they could not afford the drugs. Doctors left the country. Fear was everywhere. Mothers who were lucky enough to have their babies in hospitals or clinics would abandon them because they were HIV positive and there was no money for food, no home, nothing. We pensioners knitted for the 'Aids babies’ – little tops we called Mother Teresa vests – because it was all we could do. We used to say that things couldn’t get any worse, but they always did.

“If you needed drugs, you were in a desperate situation. I stopped taking medication for a thyroid complaint. I knew I wouldn’t die. But if you were diabetic, where did you get the insulin? If you had a heart condition, where did you get drugs? People just faded away and died. Partly, they lost heart. When the Government’s repatriation scheme was introduced, it was such a fantastic thing. It was an offer of salvation.”

Before her situation deteriorated, Mrs Twiss was doing voluntary work for ZANE – Zimbabwe a National Emergency – a charity set up eight years ago by the former MP Tom Benyon to alleviate the effects of hyperinflation on desperate Zimbabweans, both white and black. Using a different name to protect its work, it operates “under the radar” in Zimbabwe, helping farmers whose lands have been seized, dispensing money to the new poor for rent, food and medicine. It is proud that not a single penny it has raised since 2002 has been lost to corruption.

“The cushion they were providing was immense,” Mrs Twiss says. “Many of those they were supporting were old, lonely or abandoned. Their children had left Zimbabwe and they were too proud to ask for help. They did not want to be a drag on their children or admit they were in trouble. ZANE just grew and grew.”

Eventually, Mrs Twiss needed ZANE’s help herself. She was living mostly on cabbage and carrots and could no longer afford the rent for her sheltered flat. “A wartime spirit existed such as Britain experienced and the community helped each other out. Some of the churches brought food trucks from South Africa. My elder sister, who lives there, would send me tuna and powdered milk. There were – and are – people so much worse off. But I do not know what we pensioners would have done without ZANE. I cannot explain what it meant to us. We had become scavengers. They gave us back our dignity.”

ZANE played a significant role in the cross-government repatriation scheme and continues to support desperate people who did not either choose or qualify to come to Britain.

Dawn Twiss now lives in a local authority studio flat in Wickford, Essex, where she will be supported for the rest of her life. She is unusual in allowing herself to be identified. Most of the pensioners who have been resettled in Britain are happy to share their experiences but not their names because they fear reprisals from the Mugabe regime on friends or family still in Zimbabwe.

“It has made me very grateful for what I have,” she says. “I am met with stares of disbelief when I try to explain the situation in Zimbabwe to people here. I think constantly of the desperate plight of all the vulnerable pensioners left in Zim – the non-Brits, those whose health is failing and for whom medical care is unaffordable.

“Their future seems very uncertain. Quite apart from rising costs, shortages and failing public utilities, there is an election coming up and who knows what that will bring? Nothing good, I fear. There is still a great need for the assistance ZANE is giving. So much tragedy, so much sadness. When will it all end?”